The Omen: Legacy
by JoanMilton
Summary: Chapter the Prologue, in which our intrepid Hero thwarts a Prophecy, makes a shocking Discovery and changes History. My first fan fiction. This Alternative Universe work is written as a series of vignettes, the reason for which will eventually be revealed, so gaps in events is normal. Read, review if you wish, but mostly enjoy! I don't own The Omen. Rating might go up.
1. Chapter 1

**The Omen: Legacy**

All religions issue bibles against Satan, and say the most injurious things about him, but we never hear his side. We have none but evidence for the prosecution and yet we have rendered the verdict.

Mark Twain-1889

**Prologue**

Kate drove; Damien sat in the back seat with Peter. Ocassionally, Kate would look at them in the rear-view mirror and see Damien's arm around Peter's shoulder. Peter smiled at Damien, who smiled back and while he could feel Peter's love and devotion for him, Damien felt nothing for the boy, whose soul now belonged to him and Satan.

As she drove, Damien's mind reached out to Kate, not to Kate herself, but to a presence he hoped to find growing within her. However, since he had only had sex with her yesterday, the likelihood that she was already pregnant was slim.

Damien had let everyone think that he had been duped by Kate, but he knew that he had needed her to carry his offspring in case he did not survive and then Damien's children would take up the mantle and work towards manifesting Satan's kingdom on Earth.

Damien felt nothing for Peter, but _his_ children, that he would miss. The thought that his own children would have to make their way in the world without him troubled him more he thought that it would, but while Damien would not be there physically for his children, he would be there in spirit.

Damien possessed six of the daggers, daggers that were now safely in the hands of Thomas Chambers and because DeCarlo would only have one with which to kill Damien, it would only end his physical life; all seven daggers were necessary to completely extinguish Damien's life, including his soul.

If Damien did not survive, he would first have a daughter. Damien would be there for his daughter, guiding her, teaching her. One day, she would run _Thorn Industries_ as his inheritor and maintain and grow the empire that Damien had built. A daughter who would be as powerful as her father, capable of making terrible things happen should she need them to and be able to protect the secret that she would carry inside of her. Damien smiled.

Inside of his daughter would be the embryo of her twin brother, whom at some point would be implanted inside his daughter's adoptive mother. Nine months later, Damien would have a son that nobody would suspect was Damien's spiritual successor and while his son would be a separate entity with his own psychology and would not physically resemble Damien, they would be the same where it most counted: his son would be the Antichrist reborn.

The priest had chosen a far out of the way spot, three hours outside the city. Damien removed his arm from around Peter, who then reached out and took Damien's hand and then...Damien felt elated, free and better than he had since the Nazarene had been born weeks ago; he felt like his old self, strong, confident and above all, powerful; then, there it was again, corruption, perversion, repression, the Nazarene sapping him of his energy.

Eventually, Kate reached the church and began to slow down and then pulled over. Kate got out of the car first, followed by Damien and Peter. Kate walked on ahead, as did Peter, albeit in opposite directions, when for a few seconds, Damien felt fine again, and he took a deep breath, and then he was hit with that feeling that made him feel like walls were closing in on him. The change in how he felt was so sudden and severe, he collapse against the car. Nausea gripped him and he broke out in a sweat. Peter began coming back, but Damien waved the boy away, the last thing he wanted to do was make nice when the world was sincerely screwing with him at the present time.

The three of them went into the church; Kate quickly jogged down a short flight of stairs and Damien followed, with Peter beside him. Damien had nearly made it to the bottom of the stairs when, on his right, he spotted DeCarlo. Damien turned around and with speed and surety, pulled Peter to him. DeCarlo stepped in and before DeCarlo knew what was happening, Damien shoved Peter onto the knife and Damien held DeCarlo's gaze, reveling in the priest's horror as it dawned on DeCarlo that he had not killed the Antichrist, but had instead murdered an innocent boy. Kate turned, expecting to see Damien dying and instead watched as Peter collapsed; Kate went to her son.

Damien moved towards DeCarlo. "Where is your god now, priest?" His hands found DeCarlo's neck and squeezed, intending to choke the life out of him, but instead moved on towards their christ. As he moved through the church, he was fine, momentarily, and then he cried out as that other horrible, familiar consciousness of the Nazarene pushed its way back into Damien's mind, bringing Damien to his knees.

Something was happening and Damien needed to stop and think. The brief moments of tranquility would allow him time to sort out what was going on, but they were too brief until that feeling of being smothered by the Nazarene again overcame him.

Damien moved forward, when he noticed movement on his left, a shadow and he moved towards it. Then he could feel _IT_ happening again, but this time, Damien drew on strength from the depths of his soul and when he felt ecstasy and freedom, he held it and made it stay and he screamed as the other…reality tried to push its way back into Damien's mind, but he held on and then

LOVE

PROTECTION

**FATHER**

and Damien understood. A huge smile spread across his face as realization took hold and for the first time in weeks, he could breathe without feeling like there was a crushing weight on his chest.

Shortly after Damien had found out about his parentage, he developed an interest in jackals; in the animal itself, but more so in myths surrounding the animal. Not prevalent in the Western world, Damien had turned to African folklore and it had not taken long until he had found what he had wanted.

In Khoikhoi myths, people native to Namibia, the black-backed jackal was often paired with the lion. Stronger and larger than the jackal, the stories depicted the lion being outwitted by its smaller and more cunning counterpart. The lion…even as a teenager, Damien knew that in Judeo-Christian beliefs, Christ was often associated with a lion. Only this time, it had not been the jackal that had used deceit, it had been the lion.

There had been an alignment of stars in the early morning of March 24th, but it had been meaningless. Instead, their god had taken possession of Damien's mind and made Damien believe that the Nazarene had been reborn. So completely had the Nazarene and his father controlled Damien, it had prevented Father from reaching son; only when Damien's life had been moments away from ending had Satan been able to breach the veil that his counterpart had created. Even in the chapel, when Damien had reached out to God, he had been prevented from listening to what his Father had been trying to tell him. Now that Damien was aware that it had all been a lie, the so-called god and his son could no longer control him.

Damien watched as the shadow continued moving towards him and realized that it was Kate and realized that he had foolishly left the dagger behind after he had killed Peter. No doubt Kate was coming to kill him for having taken her son's life. Not that Damien could blame her, he would be outraged too if someone had killed his child, but Damien's empathy was reserved for himself, his Father and, hopefully, his children.

With the Nazarene and his father out of Damien's head, he was at full strength. Damien moved, clouded Kate's mind so that she wouldn't realize that Damien was no longer in front of her and then, he was behind her and before Kate could call out or scream, he placed his hands around her neck, pressing with the heaviest pressure he dared until she went limp and he gently placed her on the ground.

First, off came his belt; he bound her legs with that. Next, he took off Kate's blouse and fastened her hands with that. Damien removed his coat, his sweater, and his shirt; put his sweater and coat back on, ripped the shirt and used it as a gag. Damien reached down and picked up the dagger; he was now in possession of the only things on the planet that could kill him. Damien clutched the lone knife in his hand and moved towards the priest.

"I asked you where your god was, but I'm guessing that that you've found that out for yourself. You can feel it, can't you? Emptiness, nothingness, flaccid rage; while my Father, God, Satan, to whom I give boundless gratitude for my salvation, works His will in the world, showing your impotent god and his worthless son to be the liars that they really are. Guess that baby was just a baby. Oh well, better luck next time." Damien turned the corner and DeCarlo was across Peter, the priest's body shaking with grief.

DeCarlo knew. The priest could feel the withering away of the Nazarene and knew that it had all been a horrible lie. Damien reached down and yanked up the priest by his hair, chunks of it coming away in Damien's hand, but DeCarlo was past caring. DeCarlo had been betrayed by God and that sense of loss, so many dead; his faith, gone. That misery poured over Damien like sacred water and baptized him with the sweetest agony. Damien wanted to look DeCarlo in the eyes, however, the priest had closed them.

"I hope all this grief isn't for Kate and Peter? In few months from now, nine to be precise, his mother is going to get to give birth all over again, to my children. You have sex with someone and you get her pregnant, that's how procreation works in the real world." Damien looked down at the knife and back up to the priest and then drove the dagger through DeCarlo's right eye, twisting it for good measure. DeCarlo was dead before his body hit the ground.

Damien wiped the blood off on the priest's coat and pocketed the knife. Damien returned to Kate, and found her car keys in her pants pocket, lifted her up, and held her against a wall and then hoisted her up over his right shoulder.

Damien moved back the way that all of them had entered the church. Damien would send people here to clean up. DeCarlo could be buried anywhere, but Peter would have to be brought back. Damien went to the car, unlocked and opened the trunk and placed Kate inside and closed the trunk. The car door was open, so Damien got in, started the car and made his way back into the city, knowing where he had to go.

Thomas Chambers worked at _Thorn Industries_ and headed up mergers and acquisitions, but served as one of Damien's personal advisers and was one of Damien's inner circle. Thomas had come to England under the guise of looking in on things in the London office, but had come to take care of things if DeCarlo had been successful in killing Damien before he could kill the Nazarene.

The drive back to the city took another three hours and Damien fought against the exhaustion that was threatening to overtake him before all of this was over. Thomas was staying at Felix for the time that he was here and Damien made his way to the residence that was located in London.

As Damien drove, he tried not to let his mind wander into the possibility of having children, but it wasn't working. Damien had overstated things with DeCarlo for effect, but each passing moment since his Father had intervened and saved his life had built-up in Damien the desire to be a father until by the time he arrived at Felix, having children seemed like the most logical and normal thing that had ever occurred to him.

As Damien pulled into the driveway, he checked his watch: it was eight in the morning. Damien got out of the car and rang the doorbell and moments later Thomas, in his pajamas, opened the door. "Lost?"

"No, almost killed." Damien explained to Thomas what had happened, finishing with telling Thomas that the birth of the Nazarene had been a trick to lure Damien to his death.

Thomas smiled at Damien and then broke into laughter. "So apart from giving me the good news to me in person, why are you here?"

Damien walked to the car and Thomas followed him. Damien pulled out the keys from the ignition, unlocked the trunk and opened it. Thomas looked down at Kate, who was still unconscious, and then back up at Damien. "Is she pregnant?" Thomas and Paul were the only ones who knew what the plan had been.

"Not yet, but I wanted to take her to Oscar. Not only that, but we've got to get people to go back to the church and clean up. I need Peter brought back, but DeCarlo can be disposed of anywhere."

"Okay, give me half an hour." Thomas went back inside the house alone assuming that Damien would want to wait in case Kate woke up. As promised, Thomas returned, dressed, with his brief case and a duffle bag and began the drive out to Oscar. Damien sat in the front seat and fought fatigue.

"Okay, so the plan is pretty much unchanged from our original one. We had people at the ready to take care of any extra bodies, in this case, DeCarlo, and it won't be you being taken care of by Taggart, it will be Peter." Damien's personal physician had flown to London with Thomas and had been in contact with enough of their medical people on this side of the pond to put together a plausible story if Damien had been killed. Covering up Peter's death would be much easier.

"When did you have sex with Kate?"

"About twetny-four hours ago, so that gives us a few days of waiting."

"And you'll know when conception happens?"

"I'm hoping that I'll be able to feel it, the child inside of her. If not, my Father will have to send me some kind of message that Kate is with child."

_Thorn Industries_ kept houses and apartments available for visiting out-of-town business executives and the like in cities where _Thorn_ had branch offices and London was no exception. London had two such properties, one located in the city, where Thomas was staying and the other in the country to where Kate would be brought.

Years ago, Paul had begun referring to the city dwellings as Felix and the more rustic dwellings as Oscar and the epithets had stuck. In this case, Oscar was a three-story house surrounded by oaks and rose bushes and covered with ivy, lovely by any standards, but in this case, its most desirable feature was that it was isolated with its nearest neighbors over a mile away.

Thomas pulled up to the house, removed a set of keys from his briefcase, got out first, and unlocked and opened the door. Thomas returned and helped Damien with Kate and the two of them brought her to the couch and Thomas went back and shut and locked the door. All of the dwellings were kept in a move-in ready state, so there was food in the fridge and the beds were made and ready to be used.

"Try to get some sleep. I'll be leaving at some point to meet up with the two guys getting rid of DeCarlo, but since nobody but the two of us knows that we're here, you're safe."

Damien didn't argue, grabbed the knife out of his coat pocket and went upstairs, all the way up to the third floor so he could have the most privacy possible, as there was only one bedroom on that floor.

When Damien got into the room, he shut and locked the door and closed the curtains. Next, he opened the top drawer of the desk and found the key to the large drawer in the bottom of the desk and placed the dagger inside and locked the drawer. Damien put the key in his pants pocket and as he did that, he also realized that he was hungry too, but he didn't think about it as he removed his clothes. By the time Damien was naked, his limbs felt like they were make of lead and he made it over to the bed, pulled down the covers and got in. The cool sheets felt good against his skin and Damien knew this would be the first decent sleep that he would have since the night of March 23rd.

As tired as Damien was, a smile fit for the Cheshire cat sat his face; he was alive and soon everything about all of this would be forgotten, with hopefully one exception: children. Damien sent out love and gratitude to his Father, without whose intervention Damien would not be here. Now, since Damien was alive, Satan would be the ultimate decider as to whether Kate became pregnant and as Damien fell asleep, he hoped that his Father's answer would be yes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter the First/Second, in which our intrepid Hero waits for some news, informs Someone of Events and takes possession of some important Objects**

Damien woke up to the sound of voices from downstairs and reached over to the bedside table, turned on the lamp and checked his watch; it was five in the evening. He put on what he had been wearing yesterday, but when he opened the bedroom door, there, on the chair next to the door, was a fresh change of clothes and a suitcase. He picked up the clothes and the case, stepped back into the room, took a long, hot shower and dressed in fresh clothing and headed downstairs. However, when he got to the second floor landing, he realized that Kate had been moved to one of the bedrooms and went to see what was going on. Inside the room were three nurses and Dr. Taggart, who, upon seeing Damien, came over to him. "Kate is sedated. When did you have sex?"

"Two days ago, more or less."

"And was she ovulating?"

"I would have been wasting my time if she weren't." Damien came over to Kate. She was gagged and bound, but not with what Damien had first used to secure her. She moaned and tried to move away from him. He closed his eyes and reached out, unsure as to what he would find, if he found anything, but…nothing. He would come back every few hours and check to see whether she was pregnant. For now, he left Kate's room and went downstairs to eat and as he entered the dining room, he was greeted by two guests, one of whom was unexpected.

Paul Buher looked up as Damien entered the dining room and sat at the table. Damien knew that Thomas had contacted Paul once it began to look like that events here were drawing to a close, and Damien had known that Paul was due to arrive here as early as yesterday, depending on what was happening in Chicago. Paul was no doubt en route when he had been contacted by Thomas and told that the situation had been resolved-in their favor. Damien and Paul nodded to each other and Paul returned to what he had been doing.

The unexpected person in the room was Anna Buher, Paul's niece, whom Paul had seemingly liberated from school in order for her to be involved in what was happening here. While Anna was only seventeen, she had inherited her uncle's business acumen and his good sense; Paul was training her to be his eventual replacement.

Damien had woken up and come down in time for dinner. Someone had gone into the city and had come back with Indian take-away. Everyone helped themselves and he began to devour his food, even though Indian cuisine wasn't his favorite. The meal was good, but it somehow reminded Damien of _Chan's_ in Chicago, one of the few remnants of his former life with Richard and Ann that he held up as tradition. Thomas handed Damien a glass of cold beer, with which he washed down his first mouthful of food. He would be back in Chicago, under one circumstance or another, and his first meal would be at _Chan's _and he couldn't help but think that if he had children, he would get to introduce them to the best Chinese food in the Western hemisphere.

"So, DeCarlo has been taken care of and Peter _was_ with our medical people at _St. Margaret's_ and is now at a funeral home. Apparently, Peter died from a brain injury, and he'll be cremated; the funeral will be the day after tomorrow. Next, I'm assuming that once this pregnancy matter is resolved, we're headed back home to the Windy City?" Thomas put a forkful of food in his mouth and looked at Damien, who nodded.

Paul handed Damien a piece of paper and he began reading it. It was a hastily written document stating that for various reasons, including the attack on Damien's life, Jacob Schroeder's involvement in the near destruction of the Aswan Dam, and Schroeder's so-called connection to Damien, _Thorn Industries_ would be better served with its commander-in-chief back at the helm and he would be immediately resigning as Ambassador to Great Britain. It was all fine to Damien, who gave Thomas the go-ahead to have the resignation drawn up and made official; he would sign it when he was at the Embassy in London. Paul looked at Damien. "You're still going to have to call the President and talk to him...what about the Presidency of the United Nations Youth Council?"

"It depends whether she's pregnant. I'm also going to have to call Kate's boss and tell him that she's taking a leave of absence." Damien continued to eat.

"We've got the contact information here. You can call now, try the office first, he might still be there." Thomas handed Damien another piece of paper that had on it the name and phone number for Kate's boss, both at his office and at home.

"I'm heading back to Chicago tonight. There's the meeting the day after tomorrow for…"

"…the bid for the contract to rebuild the Aswan Dam. Let me know how it goes." Damien looked at Paul, who smiled. Leave it to Damien, with everything that had been going on, to know what was happening on the home front.

"Am I still staying here, Uncle Paul?"

"Yes, you will come back with everyone once this is over and done. However, I want to speak with you before I leave."

"Yes, sir." Anna went back to reading the notes that her uncle had given her about the meeting that was scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

Once everyone was done eating, Anna went off to let the others speak privately.

"In case it wasn't mentioned earlier, I'm glad you're okay." Thomas looked at Damien and Paul concurred with a nod of his head. "So what exactly happened?" Paul raised his eyebrow at Damien. No doubt, Thomas had told Paul what Damien had told him, but Paul wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth.

Damien took a drink of his beer. "It was all a lie, beginning with the prophecy in the 'Book of Hebron,' which served to prime the pump as it were. _They_ assumed, correctly so, that I would educate myself on _them_, on me and that I would eventually find the prophecy, conveniently telling me the location of the birth of the Nazarene. Not only that, but any over-zealous do-gooders like DeCarlo would have the motive, the opportunity and location to try to kill me. There was an alignment of stars, but it was meaningless...full of sound and fury signifying jack shit, but then _they_ invaded my head making me believe that the Nazarene had been reborn. Whatever baby was born and was supposedly their christ, was nothing but a child born to someone. I don't know what DeCarlo told the parents or parent of that child, if he said anything, who now may be thinking that their son is destined for great things." The Cheshire cat smile was back again. "It was all bull, all to get me to lay down my life, but my Father intervened and I'm here and the Nazarene isn't…a shame, really." And Damien let that smile sit there as he took another drink of beer.

"On a different yet not unrelated topic, what do we do about her?" Thomas looked at Damien.

"We wait for the next few days to see whether she gets pregnant. If not…"

"Can't you just bring her back to Chicago and try there?" Thomas proposed.

"It's not that easy. Remember, these children were supposed to be born to replace me, but I'm not going anywhere just yet. Not that having children, or a child, wouldn't be advantageous, but if she's not meant to get pregnant, then it's not going to happen."

The three of them sat and worked out a plan to call Kate's boss. The call would be made from Kate's room so that she could talk to Michael, her immediate supervisor at the _BBC_. Kate would be taking a leave of absence from work. If Kate were pregnant, it would be long leave of absence as she would be brought back to Chicago and be taken care of until she had Damien's children and then she would be eliminated. If Kate didn't get pregnant, Peter's death would push her over the edge and she would kill herself. Either way, it was simply a matter of time until Kate Reynolds was dead.

Upstairs, the nurses left the room in order to give Damien and Thomas the privacy that they needed to make the call. Damien called the office number first and for whatever reason, he was there this late at night. "Michael Jones here." The clipped, crisp British accent was unlike the reporters back at home with whom Damien was used to dealing.

"Mr. Jones, this is Damien Thorn."

"Mr. Ambassador, to what do I owe this unexpected surprise?"

Damien put on his very best concerned voice and continued talking to the man. "Well, it's not very good news. I'm calling for Kate, actually; Peter...Peter passed away."

"Oh God, is she okay?"

Damien felt like telling him that that was one of the stupidest questions that could ever be asked of someone who was experiencing a personal tragedy, but he thought better of it. "I'm afraid not. She's with me and we're…well, we're somewhere private. The press hasn't been notified…"

"Of course not, that's best. When's the funeral?"

"That detail is being worked out. I can get back to you with the exact time and place if you like. While I'm sure that Kate had many friends at work, she can't take the stress of a crowd. She's under the care of my personal physician, who has her on some mild sedatives for now. I called not only to tell you about Peter, but to say that Kate will be taking some time off from work."

"Of course, completely understandable. It will just be myself and one other person at the service. And yes, please, get back to me with the information and we'll be there. I want to support Kate anyway that I can."

"Kate's here with me, would you like to speak with her?"

"If she's up for it."

"Kate's nodding for me to hand her the phone; here she is." Damien handed her the phone, dropped the concerned boyfriend façade and placed all of his energy into controlling Kate. Thomas gave Damien another phone so he could listen in on the conversation.

"Katie, I'm so sorry."

"Thank-you," Kate's voice was weak and tired, but that was good; she sounded as if she'd been through the proverbial ringer.

"You take off from work whatever time you need. And if there's anything that you want, you just ask…day or night."

"Damien is taking care of everything; we're somewhere private."

"Good, nobody is going to hear anything from us until you give us the say so to say anything about Peter, okay? I'm glad Damien is taking care of you. You landed a good one there, Katie."

"Thank-you, I'm going to let you go now. I'm tired and I want to rest. I'll put Damien back on the phone. Good-bye, Michael." Damien took the phone from Kate and Thomas was there with her gag and put it back in place.

"Hello?" Damien's voice was gentle again.

"Take care of her, please…and please get back to me with the information about the funeral."

"Of course, I'm going to take her up to bed…not that things will be any better tomorrow, but…"

"Understood, what else can you do?" Michael hung up.

"Yes," and Damien hung up at his end and he and Thomas looked at each other. "Make sure you call him back with where the funeral will be."

Thomas and Damien went back downstairs and Anna and Paul were talking. Paul had his suitcase with him.

"Thomas, can you come with us so that you can drive Anna back?"

"Sure, but before I forget." Thomas went outside and came back with a box and handed it to Damien, who knew what was inside.

Before Paul left, he took Damien aside into the living room. There weren't many men who could make Paul Buher look and feel insignificant; of course, Damien Thorn was no man. "Are you okay?"

Damien smiled. "I'm better than okay. I'm alive, my Father loves me and has proven His power in the face of their ineffectual god and his son and I could very well be a new dad shortly."

"You want this child?"

"Is there a reason that I shouldn't?" Damien held Paul with his eyes and Paul could feel fear begin to work its way through his brain and he only started breathing again once Damien released Paul from his gaze.

"No, I'm just surprised. You've never shown an interest in wanting to be a family man."

"I don't want to be a family man; I want to be a father. I don't want to marry, but it doesn't mean that now that the situation has presented itself, I can't look forward to having a child, or children."

Paul put a hand on Damien's shoulder. "I hope you get what you want. I'll call you and let you know how the meeting went and you call me with any news." Damien nodded in agreement and watched as the three of them left.

Damien went upstairs, checked in on Kate, who was still not pregnant, then went into his room and closed and locked the door. He retrieved the first dagger from the drawer and brought it, and the box, over to the bed. Damien made sure that the knife he had taken from DeCarlo was apart from the others as he removed all the daggers from the box, holding one of them in his hand.

Crafted nearly one thousand years ago, the knives had been created to be the destruction of the individual now holding them. The Daggers of Megiddo, twelve inches long, constructed of early steel and deadly, and that wasn't even taking into consideration that the blade was triangular in shape, creating a wound that was extra nasty and difficult to close when the knife was removed from its victim. He turned it over in his hands and smiled; he now owned the only things on Earth that could kill him. With the exception of the dagger that had killed DeCarlo, which was apart from the others, Damien couldn't tell which daggers were which, but it was irrelevant; he had them now and that was all that mattered.

One, the first one, the one dropped by the priest in the _BBC_ studio, the one that had signalled to Damien that he was being pursued by, as it would turn out, some very poor hunters. That priest had ended up being burned and melted to death in an attempt to kill the Antichrist. Damien put the first, and each subsequent dagger back in the box after he held them.

Two, three, four, those ones had been taken from three priests whom Damien had followed to an abandoned church miles outside of London. Damien had tricked two of the three men into believing that they had murdered the Antichrist when they had, in fact, stabbed and killed one of their own. The two remaining priests had considerately dropped their knives before Damien forced them into a sealed off staircase, re-covered the stairwell with the grate and had left them there to die. Damien retrieved the third dagger from the dead priest and had driven back to London.

Five and six had been taken off of two priests at the fox hunt, the symbolism of which had not been lost on Damien. With the first priest, he had invaded the horse's mind, making it think that it was being attacked by jackals. Spooked, the horse had thrown its rider over the side of the bridge to his death seventy feet below. Later, Damien had had to ride down the embankment and retrieve the dagger, which he had with pleasure. With the second priest, Damien had acted as pack leader to a group of hounds and ordered the dogs to rip the priest to shreds. If that hadn't been enough, Damien had used the blood from that kill to engage in a particularly interesting tradition; he had bloodied Peter, initiating the boy into more than just the sport of foxhunting.

Damien held the seventh and last dagger in his hand. Taken from DeCarlo, the architect of the quest to kill the Antichrist, but it had been Damien who had, with the help of his Father, survived. He gripped the dagger and let the memory of the absolute despondency which had overwhelmed DeCarlo fill him and then, the feeling of ramming the dagger through the priest's eye. Damien was alive and they were dead; he had triumphed while they had been vanquished and that sense of absolute victory of his foes filled him with inexorable ecstasy.

Damien realized something, looked down, and then back at the locked door and smiled.

He was downstairs enjoying a glass of wine when Anna and Thomas came back to the house with his suitcases in tow. "All of my stuff is out of Felix, so they can get a cleaning crew to come down and make it ready for the next occupant. That looks like a good idea." Thomas poured himself a glass of wine and he and Damien sat and talked and Anna went to her bedroom on the second floor. At one thirty in the morning, Thomas called it a night and went to his bedroom, which was on the first floor. Damien went upstairs and, after checking in on Kate for a final time, retired to his room.

Damien stripped naked, got into bed and had brought a book with him, uncertain as to whether he would be able to fall asleep. Damien read two pages, felt tired, put the book on the bedside table, reached over and shut of the lamp, and, surprisingly, was asleep in minutes.

**Nota Bene: I've labeled this chapter one and two so that the next chapter, numbered three in the title, will be the same as the link for the third chapter...if you follow my meaning.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter the Third, in which in our intrepid Hero finally receives much anticipated News **

Damien slept until nine the next morning and woke up feeling better than he had in weeks. He showered, dressed, made his first trek into Kate's room to find her still not pregnant and then went downstairs and found the first floor deserted. Damien was making his breakfast when Anna came back from a jog, she then went upstairs to shower and he was eating when Thomas returned, and Thomas didn't return alone.

"For starters, I thought that you could use a friend." Damien's dog trotted into the room, came over to his master, turned around and lay down at his feet. Damien reached down and gave the dog a few hearty yet playful thumps on his rump.

"Next, I've brought appropriate clothing for funeral attending. The service will be tomorrow at ten in the morning in one of the chapels at the cemetery and yes, I already called Kate's boss and told him. I've also brought you reading material." Thomas dropped a stack of reports on the table. "These have all been signed, and you can't sign anything anyway considering that you're not officially back." On top of the stack of files was a thick book filled with baby names. Damien looked up. "It's a lot harder than you think." Thomas winked at him.

When Anna came downstairs from her shower, she was dressed in business attire. "I'm taking us over to the London office. Why don't you come with? You've been cooped up since you got here." Thomas held out Anna's coat for her.

"I'll get out of the house tomorrow for the service. What about Kate's passport?"

"Everything is good. We'll be gone for most of the day and I'll bring back Chinese so I don't have to cook. The one thing this place needs is a BBQ. I'll have to do my chicken in the oven, not the same but, it'll do. I'll buy the chicken today so it marinates overnight."

"Your BBQ is the best, Mr. Chambers." Like Damien and her uncle, Anna had been over many times to one of Thomas' BBQs that had quickly become both a summer and winter tradition.

Thomas shook his head. "Work for the largest multinational corporation on the face of the planet, finagle some of the best mergers in the history of corporate America…and the Black guy gets a thumbs up for his chicken."

Anna's face had turned the color of chalk, but Thomas laughed. "Anna, I'm kidding. I see she also inherited her uncle's sense of humor, or lack thereof." Damien laughed, finished eating and saw Thomas and Anna to the door.

"At least go sit in the backyard or something, okay?" Damien agreed and then watched Thomas and Anna leave and except for the three nurses and Kate, he was alone in the house.

Damien went outside, but the weather was too cold for his liking so he came back in and turned on the television, but there was nothing on, then decided now would be a good time to call the President and explain what was going on, which Damien did, asking him to hold off on any press release until tomorrow after Peter's funeral. For now, the Deputy Ambassador would be handling all the duties that would have normally fallen to Damien. They made small talk about the President's wife and kids, and Damien ended the conversation by promising to come and visit once he got back to the States. After the call, he grabbed the stack of files, which included the baby name book, and once he checked on Kate, went into his room intending to spend the day reading reports. It was noon, and Damien had gotten through the majority of the files, when he gave into temptation and picked up the book.

When first faced with the prospect of having children, Damien had been easily able to think of a name for a son, it had been Robert's alternative name if he had not gone with Damien, but a daughter...While he had spent more time thinking about having a girl, since she would have been the first one born, he had not given much thought to picking out a name for her. Damien could not think off hand of any suitable names for girls, he would never name her after Kate, so he was stymied as to what to call his daughter, should he have one. Damien made a trip to Kate's room, came back, turned to the middle of the book where the names for girls started and began with the A's...

At three in the afternoon, Damien decided to go downstairs and have a light lunch, he was now in the B's not having found a name in the A's that he liked, and after he ate, he went back upstairs and made his perfunctory mental examination of Kate. He reached out with his mind and while he wanted to find something, he expected this time to be like all the others and almost hastily moved on, but then Damien let out a nearly inaudible gasp. "Go downstairs and wait for Thomas." Knowing that he was not speaking to Kate, the three nurses left him alone.

Damien looked behind him; the door was shut. He got down on one knee, to anyone who came in it would have looked like he was proposing to Kate, and since he couldn't think of a better place, put his hand just below her navel. He was hesitant to try again, wondering if he had imagined what he had felt moments earlier, but he took a breath and reached out; it was still there.

Whatever it was felt separate from Kate…something foreign inside of her…like it didn't belong. Damien was sure that it felt like him, but he didn't want to project himself onto whatever it was that he could feel. He thought of it like a tiny blip on a radar screen sending out a signal, but he had no idea whether that tiny blip was aware that someone was listening to it. That signal hadn't been there before and felt like something alien inside of Kate…and…female. At first, Damien had thought that the gender had been Kate, but it was definitely coming from that blip. He smiled and let himself believe; nine months from now, Damien Thorn was going to be a father. He closed his eyes. "Oh Satan, from whom all true blessings flow, thank-you for my child."

Damien knew that the tiny life could not hear him, but like most parents, he left logic at the door and spoke. "Hello, daughter; I'm your father. I'm not going to tell you my name yet because you don't have one, but I promise you that the next time we talk, you will. I love you; your father loves you more than he can ever tell you with words. I'm going to go now, but I'll be back and when I do, you'll have a name." He left Kate, went back to his room, picked up the book and turned to the names beginning with D. Since he had been intent on giving his son the alternative to Damien, then his daughter would get a name that began with the same initial as her father. He didn't find anything in the Da's and moved on and then…there it was. He liked the sound of it: strong, powerful, graceful and feminine, and once he read the meaning of the name, he knew that that it would belong to his daughter.

Damien _had_ decided, once he had come upstairs from lunch, to switch tact and try reading something else, but that wasn't going to happen now, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on much of anything so he brought half a dozen reports with him and returned to Kate's room. The dog followed his master, but once they entered the room, the dog stopped, looked up at Damien and and went over to Kate and nudged her stomach with his head. He then sat and thumped his tiny tail on the floor. Damien placed the files on the table that faced the garden out back and then pulled up a chair beside Kate and sat. He smiled, reached over and scratched the dog behind his ear. "So you're my pregnancy test, are you? Do you approve of the newest addition to my family?" The dog gave a quiet bark, as if not to disturb the new being inside of Kate and then curled up at Damien's feet and closed his eyes.

Damien reached out again to that little blip inside of Kate. "I told you that when I came back you'd have a name. Hello, Delia, I'm your father, Damien. We won't be properly introduced to each other for nearly a year, but I can feel you and I will be here for you…not just now, but always." He moved the chair closer to the window and began to read, but every now and then, he reached out to his daughter.

He was in Kate's room for two hours before Thomas returned to Oscar and was told that something was up. Thomas opened the door and one look at Damien told him all he needed to know. "I'll understand if you want to talk to Paul first."

Damien grinned. "She's pregnant."

"Yes, I know. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you, daddy." Thomas slapped Damien on the back. "However, if the look on your face hadn't given it away, he might have." A black dog, slightly smaller and younger than Damien's dog, entered the room. The new dog came over to Kate, sat beside her and looked up at Damien, whose puzzled expression was enough to prompt Thomas' question. "This is new?"

Damien, who had gotten up at this point, shook his head. "I guess so, it looks like I have a new dog, or my child does. Thanks for the felicitations." They shook hands. "I can feel her, but I don't know if she can feel me."

"She…it's a girl?"

"Nine months from now, I'm going to have a daughter."

"A girl...what about the next Antichrist?"

Damien shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she's supposed to carry the next Antichrist, eventually. But, for whatever reason, I have a girl."

"Did you pick a name?"

"Delia, it means visible. I can't think of a more apt name to give my daughter; both my life and hers proof of Satan's power in the world."

"A man with a child...now the women really won't be able to keep their hands off you. Fatherhood suits you…champagne! There's champagne in the fridge. Come on, you can eat and celebrate at the same time." Damien and Thomas went downstairs and brought the dogs with them, while the three nurses took their food, along with food for Kate, upstairs. "Anna, meet our new father."

She came over and held out her hand; Damien took it, "Congratulations! Boy or Girl?"

"Girl, I picked the name Delia."

"Oh, that's too cute, Damien and Delia."

Thomas returned from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and after pouring three glasses and handing the first one to Damien, held up his glass. "To Damien, the new dad. Speaking from experience, fatherhood will be more joy, pain, heartache, mess and fun then you ever thought possible…congratulations!" Everyone took a sip from their glass. "And to God, without whom Damien would not be here to enjoy this moment." Everyone drank again. Thomas and Anna went into the kitchen and came out with the Chinese food. Thomas had also brought food for the dog, which had now turned into dogs, both of whom were eventually fed and let outside. They very quickly harkened to nature's call and came back, seemingly finding the frosty spring weather as distasteful as their master did.

Food was passed around and they ate and talked and spent the next hour and a half teasing Damien about having a girl, which he took in stride. They were enjoying more champagne, though Thomas made sure that Anna did not have more than two glasses, when she put the glass up to her mouth and then froze. "You were supposed to have a boy and a girl?"

"Yes," Damien took a sip from his glass.

"Twins?"

"Yes."

"I don't mean to point out the obvious, but you realize that male/female twins are fraternal, that means two eggs and two sperm. The likelihood of the fertilization of both eggs happening at the same time would be next to impossible." He simply looked at her. "I'm not saying that she is pregnant with twins, but if the plan was to have one boy and one girl, I wouldn't discount the possibility. Damien, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out or anything."

"Come on," Thomas lead him upstairs. Kate had eaten and two of the nurses were coming back down with all the empty plates and cutlery. He sent the other nurse out of the room and then reached out his mind to that little beacon and she was still there, but now, Damien could feel a second presence, it was male; it was his son.

Damien looked at Thomas, who smiled and left him alone with the newest addition to his growing family. "Hello, Alexander, I'm your father, Damien, and that other little presence you may feel is your sister, Delia; Delia that's your brother, Alexander. You two get to keep each other company for the next nine months. Alexander, I'm going to tell you what I told your sister; I will be here for you, not just for now, but for always and I love both of you more than I can tell you." Damien stood there, feeling those tiny lives that would live and breathe in the outside world nine months from now. Eventually, he opened the door and came out into the hall.

"Yeah, we're going to have to sedate you too tomorrow. Congratulations again, but I think you could do with some air." They came back downstairs and when they passed Anna, Thomas smiled at her. He left Damien outside and went back in and returned with a tumbler half filled with amber liquid. "They say don't mix the grain and the grape, but I don't think that counts for you." Thomas handed Damien the glass and he took a drink…whiskey. "So what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"What do you mean?"

"Damien, you've had a stupid grin on your face since you found out about your daughter, now you have a son…we could float you in the Macy's Parade. If this going to work, you're going to have to not be so happy." Thomas smiled at him.

"I will, but it's not tomorrow right now."

Thomas went back in and left Damien outside for as long as he was willing to put up with the cold, which wasn't very long. Damien returned to the dining room and found Thomas sitting at the table, drinking coffee. Anna came out from the kitchen, having put away all the leftovers. "Congratulations, again. What did you name this one?" Thomas looked up since he too wanted to know what Damien would call his son.

"Alexander...when Robert was trying to name me, it was apparently a toss-up between that and Damien, so I thought I'd give my son the alternative."

"Alexander and Delia…nice…good choices, so what's the plan now?" Thomas looked at him.

"We'll go to the service tomorrow and then you'll bring Kate back here. I'll go to the house and decide what stays and what comes with me. We'll leave day after tomorrow."

"Oscar is ready now, so we can go right there from the airport. What about the Presidency of the United Nations Youth Council?"

Damien smiled. "I'll have enough to do with my own children for now. I'll call the President tomorrow and finalize everything and call Paul and let him know."

Thomas nodded, "Anything else?"

"I don't think so."

All three of them went into the living room, turned on the television, found an old movie and relaxed until ten thirty, when everyone decided to turn in, but while Damien was tired, he found he wasn't quite ready for bed. He went into Kate's room, sent the nurses away, shut off the lights and sat on a chair beside Kate, who was in bed, sleeping. His children's dog was curled up at the foot of the bed.

Damien sat in the dark. He had endured the possession of their god and his son; he had survived the onslaught by DeCarlo and his band of merry men and, as his reward, had received the only things on the planet that could kill him. Now, he would be father to not one, but two children: life was good. He would have to get through the service tomorrow, but that was tomorrow, for now Damien reached out to those two small beings inside of Kate and let everything else go.


End file.
